I must have missed a memo someplace, because I had absolutely no idea that governments are funding day labor pickup points — a major connection point between illegal immigrants and local labor markets. (from KHOU.com):
And in the midst of the nation’s debate on immigration, a controversial city contract is up for renewal in Houston.
[snip]
“We bring the workers off the streets,” said Marc Levinson, Neighborhood Centers Inc. “We bring a place for contractors to come in and match what their needs are with the workers who have the ability to fill those needs.”
But this center for laborers has become a center of controversy because it gets $90,000 a year from Houston’s city government.
The contract is up for a $100,000 renewal, during the same week the president addressed the nation on immigration.
The City of Houston is facilitating the hiring of illegal immigrants? Are they out of their ever-lovin’ minds?
Polimom’s trying very hard to understand what the thinking was for this, much less how they intend to explain it to taxpayers in this border state. Any bets on whether this contract gets renewed?
It’s not just Houston, and it’s not new. Other cities have done the same thing, i. e. used tax dollars to help create and run sites to bring day laborers and employers together. Perhaps they believe that getting it off of street corners and out of WalMart parkng lots makes it safer for all concerned.
Judicial Watch is currenly litigating against one site in Herndon, VA .. They hope to set a nationwide precedent that using tax dollars for such purposes is illegal.
I suppose the thinking is that if illegals are here anyway and are looking for honest work, the city might as well help them succeed in finding it. It would both reduce the motivation to engage in criminal activities and potentially generate more spending, and likely more sales tax dollars in the local economy. It would certainly reduce complaints from those who live on the street corners, and from the owners of parking lots.
Why do you assume everyone at these places is illegal?
John,
Everyone may not be. However, for as long as I’ve lived in Houston, the day labor “pick up” places have been where one goes to get some help, whether it’s moving across town, digging up a chunk of the yard for a landscaping project, or clearing out the garage…. but you need cash, and generally Spanish.
Everyone? No. Many of them? Yes.
I think that if folks need work and contractors need laborers, it’s awesome that there’s a place the two can hook up. Given the current debate and the enormous numbers of illegal immigrants, though, they would pretty much have to be legal citizens at the moment. I can’t see a way that the city can justify this contract, unless somebody is out there proving citizenship.
Master:
Yes, I see the logic — but not in the current political climate.
Yes, it would be so much better for them to be out in the streets. I wonder why you think it’s a good thing for the “political climate” to encourage illogic. Isn’t that pretty much the problem with politics in this country? We can’t seem to have an honest debate about so many things, from immigration to drugs to health care. 40 million people have no health insurance but it’s not “logical” to talk about a single-payer system. The Prohibition against drugs is at the root of most violence and crime in this country yet talk of making drug laws more reasonable or even treating drugs the way we treat alcohol automatically makes you “soft on crime.” And then we have to pretend that illegal immigration is not a necessary fact of life and always will be. Suddenly, it’s an “emergency” and it’s all people talk about, while the War in Iraq and the deplorable situation of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is barely discussed. I say we need a lot more illogic in politics.
Hollis,
I have to admit that you’ve lost me with “Out in the streets”?
In terms of a political climate, Houston is rather a hot spot for the illegal immigration debate, and a city contract strikes me as totally incredible in the face of it.
I totally disagree. Illegal immigration isn’t a necessity. It’s their cheap labor that some of the economy has come to rely upon, not their legal status… and I’ve written strongly about that impact.
I do, however, agree that the “emergent” nature of the immigration debate is fascinating. That was, of course, deliberate — brought up as a wedge issue by the GOP rolling into an election year. Not working out well for them, though.
So if these pickup sites are a useful way for contractors and legal workers to connect, the fact that some illegal workers are probably there too (I don’t dispute that, I’m not naive) means that we should shut them down?
There are probably children of illegals in the schools. Let’s shut them down too, maybe then the illegals will leave!
What I find most distressing about this story is that it seems people are already forgetting the difference between “immigrant” and “illegal immigrant” (as a child of immigrants, I’m sensitive that one) and that nobody at KHOU ever asked why it costs 90K to run one.
John,
How funny…. I went to pick up AC, and on the drive I decided I didn’t have enough information about what it is, exactly, that money is buying, and for whom. Lo and behold, I sit back down at the computer and find you saying, “…nobody at KHOU ever asked why it costs 90K to run one.”
So — I’ve put in some phone callls and left some messages. I’ll let you know what I find out.
Oops – meant to add this to the above comment.
I agree with John that there’s a blurred overlap of immigrant with illegal immigrant at the moment; it’s odd, and unhelpful. Furthermore, It’s a tendency I’m seeing on both the left and right.
By “out in the streets” I meant literally on street corners where anybody can come by and pick up anyone for any price. At least with a center it’s regulated to some extent.
Illegal immigration doesn’t exist just because of demands for cheap labor, it exists because of economic conditions of the countries of origin. Until those countries are more prosperous (or we continue to go downhill economically) nothing is going to change.
As far as conflating legal and illegal, have you noticed how much the racism behind this debate is coming more and more out of the shadows? John Gibson on Fox News warning of brown babies and Bill O’Reilly warning “multiculturalism” is a danger to white America. And have you ever checked out The Minutemen website? There the racism isn’t even hidden.
I will never understand why we call them immigrants at all, frankly. When reports come out about certain situations of migration world wide, they usually refer to the people migrating as “economic refugees” and then there’s a big hue and cry about how we need to help them. Perhaps our wording is wrong.
This whole issue is fascinating. I hate the racism I’m seeing with all of it, as Holls mentioned. It’s deplorable. I lived in a border state for 20 yrs (New Mexico), and I know the problems are real and the solutions hard.
I’m concerned about the idea of a wall, so Berlin, so Israeli, so not gonna work. I’m also concerned about the terminology I’m hearing, like “catch and release.” These aren’t trout.
I sure don’t know the answer to all this, but I will be watching with interest to see how it evolves and how we end up looking as a country, morally and economically.
A quick update on this post:
Some days are really challenging in terms of schedules, and I’ve been playing phone tag since last night. However, I expect to at least be able to answer some of what came up (at least, in terms of the day labor Houston site/contract) late this afternoon.